The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-26
BEETLES KILLING TREES.
Park Keeper Moves Fight With the
Ugly Pests.

Ugly Pests.
Many trees in Forsyth Park have died
recently, and when they were felled their
bark dropped of and left the heart naked
Mr.. Theodore Moves, keeper of the park,
began an investigation, and he found that
the trouble was due to beetles, which seem
to infest the ground as well as the trees.
When the StumpS were removed beneath
them were found round balls of mud and
small pieces of wood, making compact
mass. These were broken open and within
them were found beetles in every state Of
formation from the Larvae to the fully
matured insect ready to burst forth and go
on its mission OF propagation.
There are several varieties of these insects,
but the ones that have been doing the most
damage are the ordinary beetles OF the
scarabeaus family Their birth, life in one
form, metamorphose and death make quite
an interesting history. The female beetle
deposits her eggs in the rough part of tree,
between the bark and the heart. The eggs
hatch out and produce small white worm
that finds sustenance in the wood into which
it bores and drills. Starting from its birth
place it will eat around and around the tree,
between the bark and the heart, rising
nearer the top with every circuit, and when
the tree is thoroughly infested with them
the wood and the fall of the tree to the
ground rids it of every vestage of a cover
ing. When these worms have fully matured
they return to the roots of the tree and
there build these cocoons of dirt and small
pieces of roots, lie on the inside of
them and fill the aperture through which
they entered from the inside, and III there
they make the change from worm to beetle.
A CURIOUS DEVELOPMENT.
Some Of the larvae were found, and it was
difficult at the first glance to tell what they
were, for in color they were perfectly white
and strongly resembled the grub worm. A
closer investigation showed the pincers, legs
and wings of the beetle, SO small as to be
scarcely distinguishable, yet when exam
ined with a glass distinct and unmistakable.
Another was of older growth. Its form was
complete, but its body was white and its
wings were of a light brown color. A third
was fully grown, ready for its release 1t
was of dark brown, almost black, and its
wings and shield were hard.
The cocoons are found Immediately under
the roots Of the trees, though they are I'M
earthed as deep as six feet from the surface,
yet out of the cocoons and six feet of solid
soil these pests work their way to fly for a
time under the sun, WOO and mate, deposit
one nest of eggs in another tree and die.
The length of the lives of beetles is not
matter of chance, as with some living
things, but its time is set before its birth
The length of life varies with every varity.
The time from incubation to death
is either three, five or seven years, and most
of that time is spent in wormhood in the
occupation of destroying trees The scara-
beaus are of an ancient family; their fam
lily tree has many branches, OF did until
they Topped them off one by one, but they
have been known from time out of mind for
their deStructivity. The coat-of-alTns is a
pair of pincers rampant, and child's finger
pendant between, and the motto is ''Chil-
dren, beware of pinch bugs But though
there is one branch of the family of no
mean distinction, it is evident that it does
not come direct from the main stem, for it
has not representation in the 'coat-of-arms
If it did there would be saw visible.
THE BRAZILIAN BEETLES COUSIN.
1t is a first cousin to the variegated beetle
of Brazil, and though it is never distin-
guished by being set in gold and worn as a
scarf-pin, it is much more effective than its
more beautiful relation. Ordinarily it is a
dead black in color, but it comes out of its
hole when the sun is hot and lies fat on a
limb of a tree, and the rays of sunlight are
reelected from its hard, shining back. They
assume the most delicate as we'll as bril-
liant tints. Yet while this innocent looking
shining so beautifully, he is doing deed
that will haunt him to the grave, He has a
pernicious habit of running out of the I'M
der side of his head, hard, sharp, saw
like instrument, and with it he works away
at the limb until he has worked as deep as
he can in one place; then he moves a little to
the side and works again, and he goes round
and round the limb in that manner, and by
degrees cuts it off as clearly as a carpenter
would with a saw.
This scarabeaus, is never like the Irish
man who rested his ladder against the part
of the beam he was saving off, either, for
the beetle does not want to go down with
the debris, as the II,ishman did He sits
quietly on the remaining part of the
branch, and with smile of grim satisfac-
ton watches the bough fall as he sharpens
his saw with his right fore foot, preparing
for another job.
FIGHTING OTHER DESTRoYERS.
In addition to the beetles the trees in the
Park have suffered also from moths. They
| attack the pine trees principally and lay
their eggs between the needles at their base
Another little worm matches out and it eats
its way to the centre of the needle and on
| through it to the point where it energies,
and from thence it moves to attack another.
| An idea of the diminutiye size of these little
pests and the difficulties that lie in the way
OF destroying them may be had from the
| statement that they burrow their way
through thelcentre of the pine needles. They
attack a tree by thousands, and in the course
Of time they kill it. After each of these
worms has grown it also retireS its chryzalis
to come forth full-Hedged moth and spend
the sunny summer in spelling winter clothes
The spiders, too, have been giving trou-
BILE They weave their webs around the
tender leaves of the tree and lie snugly
there, sucking the sap that should nourish
| the leaf instead of the spider After a time
they collect lot of these leaves they have
killed, and binding them together with their
glutinous threads they finally construct q
hollow ball into which they retreat to nest.
Mr.. Moves has begun wholesale war on the
insects, and his weapon is mixture of
kerosene and whale oil soap. He is conf
dent that close attention and frequent APP
plications of the mixture will save all the
| trees that have not already been ruined